Nearly two years into Trump’s second term, Laverne Cox is feeling the administration’s impact on her wallet as a Black trans woman.
The Emmy winner recently explained that she’s “lost so much money” now that brands are “very scared” to work with her after the White House’s ongoing destruction of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
“I’ve lost so much money because of this administration, the past year,” Cox told Attitude. “I managed to stay busy with acting and branding work, as well as speaking engagements. But I never thought college speaking gigs would dry up.”
After booking her breakout role on Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black (2013-’19) at age 40, Cox noted that she previously had no savings or retirement, and was in student loan debt.
“I was working really hard to get out of a financial hole,” she explained. “But then I was also working hard to try to lift up my community. When Orange came out in 2013, I didn’t know how long that moment would last. I didn’t know how successful it would or wouldn’t be.”
The Transcendent author has since done “speeches all over the country” in attempt to “humanize” trans people and elevate their stories.
But with Trump taking office for his second nonconsecutive term last January, several Hollywood studios and media companies have followed his administration’s directives on rolling back DEI.
Cox added, “This administration is very punitive with anything that suggests DEI or gender ideology, and corporations have been very scared. The past year or two, I’ve had to dip into savings and my retirement fund. So, the blessing is that I finally have the privilege to have a retirement fund to dip into, but you don’t really want to do that.”
